A car bomb that exploded near the German embassy in Kabul has killed and wounded about 50 people, according to Afghan officials.
The huge explosion went off in the Wazir Akbar Khan area of the capital on Wednesday morning, sending clouds of black smoke spiralling into the sky near the presidential palace and foreign embassies.
The explosion occurred at the peak of Kabul’s rush hour when roads are packed with commuters.
Witnesses described dozens of cars choking the roads as wounded survivors and panicked schoolchildren sought safety, with men and woman struggling to get through security checkpoints to search for loved ones.
Several people were killed and wounded in the blast near the fortified entrance to the German embassy, said Basir Mujahid a spokesman for Kabul police.
“It was a car bomb near the German embassy, but there are several other important compounds and offices near there too. It is hard to say what the exact target is,” Mujahid said.
Najib Danish, deputy spokesman for the interior ministry, initially said at least 50 people were killed or wounded but those figures soon changed with the ministry confirming a least nine deaths and 90 wounded. Danish said the blast was so heavy more than 30 vehicles were either destroyed or damaged.
“By God’s grace, Indian Embassy staff are safe in the massive Kabul blast,” India’s foreign minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted. The Indian embassy is among those close to the area.
Houses hundreds of metres away from the explosion were damaged with windows and doors blown off their hinges. The blast was loud enough to wake some residents. Reports from journalists inside Kabul said the explosion shook their houses and shattered windows.
Massive explosion just shattered all the windows and glass in our bureau #Kabul
— Jessica Donati (@jessdonati) May 31, 2017
Explosion in Kabul 5 mins ago. Shook my house, but ppl across city say it sounded close. Could be big.
— Sune Engel Rasmussen (@SuneEngel) May 31, 2017
Images posted on social media showed a huge plume of smoke in the sky.
#BREAKING: Massive explosion on the gate of the German mission in #Kabul. Damage caused to properties of Indian Embassy in #Afghanistan. pic.twitter.com/qZynPGZSNb
— Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) May 31, 2017
Shortly after the explosion police had closed off the bomb site over a radius of a few hundred metres. Outside the police barrier, close to the Emergency Hospital, bystanders assessed the damage. Shopkeepers were sweeping broken glass off the pavement.
Entezar, a barber, said he was inside his shop when the explosion occurred. “The whole window blew out,” he said, pointing to his facade.
Outside the Emergency Hospital, guards were fending off people searching for injured relatives. Crying women banged on the gates to be let in.
“My colleague is in there,” said one woman, describing how her co-worker had been burned in the face.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the attack came as the resurgent Taliban are stepping up their annual “spring offensive”.
The Islamic State group has also claimed responsibility for several recent bombings in the Afghan capital, including a powerful blast targeting an armoured Nato convoy that killed at least eight people and wounded 28 on 3 May.
Pentagon chief Jim Mattis has warned of “another tough year” for both foreign troops and local forces in Afghanistan, where more than one third of the country is outside of government control.
The blast was the latest in a long line of attacks in the Afghan capital. Kabul province had the highest number of casualties in the first three months of 2017 thanks to multiple attacks in the city, with civilians bearing the brunt of the violence.
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